It’s suggested our gay marriage law is not a priority. Since when is equality not a priority?

In recent days, the Tory Party has managed to give the impression it does not care much for David Cameron’s promise to pass a law allowing gay marriage.

And when the Prime Minister offered his troops a free vote on the issue recently, some took it as a sign that the Conservative leadership was backing down.

But Nick Herbert is out to demolish that idea. The 49-year-old Police Reform Minister is one of the party’s rising stars — a hot tip for Cabinet in the summer reshuffle and a politician who is both passionate and personable. He is also gay.

In an exclusive interview, he explained why gay marriage is, and will remain, a priority for the Conservatives and why he is certain that Mr Cameron is not losing his nerve.

He strongly hit back against colleagues such as Defence Secretary Philip Hammond, who said the Government should be focused on “things that matter to people”, and Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson, who has said he will vote against the move.

Mr Herbert said: “It has been suggested that this issue is not a priority. Of course, dealing with the economy and the deficit and restoring growth is the overriding mission and priority of this government. But since when was equality not a priority?

“Ensuring that people are treated equally without fear of discrimination should always be a priority. That’s why I think this proposal matters.”

The MP for Arundel & South Downs occupies a significant page in the history of gay rights. He was the first Conservative ever to be picked as a candidate while freely telling the selection committee he was gay.

Before him, gay Tories usually dissembled at the stern question: “Is there anything else we should know?” Some even paraded fake girlfriends to boost their chances.

“I think the Conservative Party has changed dramatically over the course of the last few years,” Mr Herbert pointed out. “We now have more ‘out’ gay Members of Parliament than the rest of the parties put together.” There are in fact 12, including Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan and Conservative vice-chairman Margot James.

His passion really ignites when he talks about the civil partnership he entered into with his partner Jason Eades in 2009 after 10 years together.

“I will forever be grateful to the MPs who had the courage to introduce civil partnerships,” he said.

“But I am getting rather fed up with people metaphorically jabbing a finger into my chest and saying I should put up with a civil partnership.

“How would they like it if I jabbed a finger into their chests and said they should put up with a civil partnership instead of their marriage? In my view it’s not acceptable to say to a group in society, ‘You should put up with something that is a second order institution to something that everybody else is entitled to, because we say so’. I think this is about nothing more or less than a fundamental issue of equality.”

It sounds like he may take advantage of the new law and marry Jason? For once, Mr Herbert seemed to be stuck for words.

Was that a yes? “I’m not going to be drawn. That’s a decision for two people to make and talk about, not for me to make unilaterally in an interview.”

Finally he conceded a pretty big hint: “Let me put it this way, I wish that I had had the opportunity to enter into a marriage.”

Mr Herbert never really wanted to become famous for being a champion of gay rights.

He only came out when he was in his early thirties (“luckily I had an incredibly supportive and loving family”) and admits that he would rather be giving interviews about his packed reform agenda, which includes massively controversial changes to police pay and conditions. As a new MP in 2005, he tried to avoid being labelled.

He recalled: “The Times had a picture of 50-odd newly elected MPs and beneath mine it just said, ‘Gay Eurosceptic’. And I thought, ‘Is that it?’”

SOON, however, he realised that he had a duty to be a role model. “I began to realise that it mattered because I had young people writing to me and thanking me for being in Parliament, as though I had anything to be thanked for,” he said.

“Symbolically, it was important to them. Role models are important. That’s why it is important that we have sports men who are openly gay — and we need more. It matters that there are people in public life who can be openly gay.”

One by one, he knocked down arguments put up by the opponents of gay marriage, including that Conservative supporters just won’t wear it.

“Boris Johnson was always quite clear about his support for gay marriage — and he just stormed to victory in London,” he said. “So, QED.”

He said that far from undermining marriage, same-sex unions will “strengthen the institution of marriage.

“It’s about saying that when two people make a commitment in public, a commitment of loving and supporting each other, society should honour and strengthen and allow that commitment, not stand in its way, which we do by law at the moment.”

The idea that the Prime Minister went wobbly after the dire council election results in May stemmed from a “misunderstanding” because the plans were left out of the Queen’s Speech pending a consultation.

“The point is that the consultation is about ‘how’, not ‘whether’ to do this,” he said. “The Prime Minister’s commitment to this issue has been clear.”

MR Herbert added: “All of the polls are telling us that the majority of the public are in favour [by three to four according to a recent YouGov survey].

“I’m absolutely confident that the House of Commons will vote for this and that we will have gay marriage by the end of this Parliament.” But could Mr Cameron just be using gay marriage as a device to detoxify the Tory name?

Mr Herbert said: “I’ve heard him talk privately and publicly on this issue and I know he is a genuine supporter.”

He wants the Bill to be just the start of a campaign to eradicate homophobia.

“There’s a broader issue here,” he said. “Two thirds of young gay people have experienced some kind of homophobic bullying in schools. We have homophobic abuse shouted from football terraces and not a single Premiership player feels able to be out.

“The idea that this is an agenda which is kind of closed or finished seems to me wrong.”